Utahns strongly back reforming ethics rules for state lawmakers

SALT LAKE CITY — Utahns overwhelmingly support broad state government ethics and campaign reform, a new Deseret News/KSL-TV poll shows.

The survey, conducted by Dan Jones & Associates, reaffirms previous polls that show by far most residents want state lawmakers to make any number of government reforms, including not taking gifts from lobbyists, campaign donation limits, no personal use of campaign funds, an independent ethics commission and better disclosure of conflicts of interests.

GOP legislative leaders promise action on a variety of ethics issues during the 2010 Legislature, which convenes next Monday for its 45-day general session.

But how far they actually may go is now unclear, especially with the resignation of former Senate Majority Leader Sheldon Killpack, R-Syracuse, said Kirk Jowers, head of the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics. Killpack, who pushed ethics reform in the Senate, resigned last week after being arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol.

House and Senate GOP caucuses were supposed to talk about various ethics bills Wednesday morning at the Capitol, where budget committees are meeting in the afternoon. House Republicans will go ahead with their ethics discussions. But GOP senators' caucus will elect some new leaders, and their ethics debate will wait for another day.

Jowers was the chair of the Governor's Commission on Strengthening Utah's Democracy, a group of political experts/citizens who recommended in December a number of changes for state elections and campaigning.

With ethics scandals in 2008, the commission's work and public concern, "the bar has been set pretty high on what (legislators) need to do this session," Jowers said.

"Improvements on all of these poll question issues is close to mandatory to defeat" a citizen initiative pushed by Utahns for Ethical Government on legislative ethics that may be on the November ballot, he added. GOP leaders, and the state party itself, oppose the ethics reform initiative, which must get 95,000 signatures by April 15 to make the ballot.

Interestingly enough, the greatest desire by Utahns is increasing mandatory disclosure of lawmakers' conflicts of interest. Eighty-six percent of Utahns strongly or somewhat favor such a reform. But that is the area least studied by legislators themselves over the past year.

The Interim Ethics Committee, made up of equal number of Republican and Democratic senators and representatives, did not take up the issue but concentrated on formulating an independent ethics commission.